Minerva — Emma.

Every semester in a different city:

Why Minerva?

Most meaningful academic work:

I researched the causes and effects of parallel governance by militias in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The City government does not have direct control over almost 40% of the metropolitan area. My research focussed on the complex relationship between the government and the militias, which warrants calling it a parallel, rather than criminal governance.
This work was meaningful to me to see the complexity of governance in action. Besides, I was able to perform extensive data analysis thanks to the available Open Data.
I researched the correlation between the historic and racist practice of redlining in the USA and the lack of green spaces. My research showed that a disproportionate part of the population in the USA that lives in so-called urban jungles is black, which means they are exposed to a higher risk of suffering from heat.
This assignment was meaningful to me because it allowed me to combine natural sciences with politics in a way I had never imagined.
The core of Minerva education is applied education and active learning. While studying Constitutional Law in Hyderabad, I interviewed the director of the Forum for Democratic Reform, a leading think-thank on constitutional reform in India.
This experience was meaningful to me because the abstract concepts of the class came to life and I got a chance to better understand how India’s (historic) caste systems influences democratic rights.

The third year marks the beginning of the thesis writing process at Minerva. In the fall semester, when I lived in Buenos Aires, I created a mock website inspired by Transparency.org and the Freedom House Index. The goal of the website is to guide citizens on how they can be watchdogs of their government. This project is a good example of what I love about active learning at Minerva: instead of picking a thesis out of the blue, we spent a whole year trying out mini-projects before we make our final decision.
The cities we live in as Minerva students are not just the backdrop of our classes. While living in Buenos Aires and learning about microcredit, I wrote an analysis on the effectiveness of microcredit in Hyderabad, the city I had lived in before. Being able to deepen my understanding of a city I’ve lived in, after moving away, is highly rewarding.
I chose to minor in Philosophy, Ethics, and Law to learn to critically reflect on the underlying ideas and implications of politics. In a class on political and social philosophy, I got an opportunity to reflect on the implications of two major measurements of democracy: The Economist Democracy Index and the Freedom House Index. Through my analysis, I learned that there is no neutral, objective definition of democracy and these indices should be used with care.

Fall 2021

The first year at Minerva concentrates on foundational learning. All students are taking the same courses to gain transferable skills in the following 4 domains:
1. Computer science and logic
2. Natural sciences
3. Social Sciences
4. Arts & Humanities
Each course focuses on problem-solving and research skills within that discipline.
- Volunteered at a phone-banking event for the Democrats in the primaries
- Volunteered at Safe Passage, an NGO helping students make their way safely from school to home in underdeveloped neighborhoods.
- Researching the relationship between the historic practice of redlining & lack of green spaces in cities in the US.
- Connecting with my classmates: a global community with students from 60+ countries
- Traveling across the US to meet friends who moved to the US in their new homes for the first time.

Spring 2022

The first year at Minerva concentrates on foundational learning. All students are taking the same courses to gain transferable skills in the following 4 domains:
1. Computer science and logic
2. Natural sciences
3. Social Sciences
4. Arts & Humanities
Each course focuses on problem-solving and research skills within that discipline.
- Visiting the border between North and South Korea
- Connecting with a ‘buddy’ from Sookmyung Women’s University and learning about her experience studying political science in South Korea.
- Meeting the local social entrepreneurship community and organizing Q&A events for my fellow students with these entrepreneurs.
- Learning about research design in natural sciences and designing experiments.
- Meditating with monks at 4 a.m. in a temple refuge in the mountains.
- Biking along the Han River at the start of Spring.

Fall 2022 (remote studying)

- Psychology: from neurons to society
- Political science and social change
- Moral Philosophy
I studied remotely this semester, therefore I created my own learning experiences in the city:
- Learned Spanish and improved from level B2 to C1.
- Joined the Global Shapers network and volunteered in a mentoring program.
- Building a home away from home. Whenever I’m not on rotation, I now spend my time in Barcelona.
- Building friendships in Spanish for the first time.
- Celebrating Thanksgiving with Minerva Alumni in Madrid

Spring 2023

- Constitutional law
- Governance in practice
- Economics
- Completed a 200hs yoga teacher training
- Organized a fundraiser for the staff of the hotel we lived at.
- Organized a trip with 15 fellow students to the first-ever Effective Altruism conference in India
- Researching the governance problem of parallel governance by militias in Rio de Janeiro.
- Seeing the Taj Mahal
- Staying at an eco-village in Goa and learning about the community's commitment to sustainability.

Fall 2023

- Comparative Politics
- Social & Political Philosophy
- Developmental Economics
- Start of thesis development
- Interning at the renowned data journalism department of Argentina’s second-biggest newspaper La Nacion.
- Visiting the innovative development project of informal neighborhoods in Buenos Aires.
- Launching Minerva’s Social Impact Community, teaching weekly classes on Social Impact.
- Working fully in Spanish for the first time.
- Hiking through Patagonia - a childhood dream come true.
- Seeing Taylor Swift live in the loudest crowd I have ever witnessed.